Brushing up on bristlecones

• The trees were originally called “foxtail pines” because the needles are arranged in tight rows like a fox’s tail. The trees were renamed in the late 1800s because of the prickly bristles on the immature cones.

• The oldest known bristlecone pine, the Methuselah Tree, is believed to be more than 4,760 years old. Several other trees in the ancient forest are about 4,000 years old.

• The world’s oldest known living plant is believed to be a creosote bush that grows in the Mojave Desert. Its age has been estimated at 12,000 years.

• Bristlecones are also found in Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah, and in the mountains of Nevada above 9,500 feet. The oldest trees are in California’s White Mountains.

The steep, switchback-packed road from the flat Owens Valley to the upper reaches of the rugged White Mountains is enough to make a well-tuned car chug a little.

It’s no wonder the trees that survive near the end of the road in this stark, strange range, which literally and figuratively stands in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada, are a hardy breed.

Hardy is putting it mildly.

Some of the trees in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest were just reaching middle age when Christ was born. The oldest, the Methuselah Tree, was around before the Pharaoh Djoser decided to invest a little time, energy and human capital in Egypt’s first pyramid.

The trees in the 28,000-acre preserve’s Schulman Grove are the oldest living arbors on Earth.

And they look it. Their gnarled, twisted trunks appear like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

“They’re so different from any conventional view you have of a tree,” said Pat McDonald, who works in the White Mountain ranger station and has volunteered at the preserve’s visitor center. “They are definitely awe-inspiring and amazing.”

Bristlecone pines have not only adapted to the harsh elements between 10,000 and 11,000 feet, they thrive in them. The trees fit right in to this part of eastern California known for extremes. Within a few hours drive are the U.S.’ highest and lowest points (Mount Whitney and Death Valley); spots that are often the nation’s hottest and coldest places (Death Valley again, and Bodie State Historic Park); and the home of the planet’s largest living thing by volume (the General Sherman tree in Sequoia National Park).

The bristlecone forest is not your typical woodland. The trees are as sparse as they are peculiar. But after staring for a few minutes at these odd specimens, a strange sort of beauty emerges. And the stunning views of the Eastern Sierra from the preserve are almost enough to make one sing “The hills are alive, with the sound …” The scenery, and the trees’ story, is worth the brief strain on a car’s engine.

“This is really a high desert, and these (trees) are really just high-desert shrubs,” said Dave Hardin, a seasonal ranger leading a group of visitors on the preserve’s Discovery Trail in mid-July.

Hardin, a former junior high science teacher in nearby Bishop, began with a tour group of about 20. His following dwindled as he climbed several hundred feet on the 1-mile loop trail. Even with his slow pace and frequent stops for mini-botany lessons, the thin air made a few people struggle to catch their breath. About half turned back early.